Leaving the light
by Maia17
Summary: Maia thought that leaving her home and past behind was the best thing that could have happened to her. Never could she have imagined that it was her future that held the true nightmares. Damon felt nothing. He had abandoned his emotions 100 years ago. But when he saw her, there was a spark. His monster roared. He had to have her! dark Damon adult content, noncon, violence
1. Prologue

Vampire diaries and all i´s characters belong L.J. Smith. Not to me.

 _Authors note:_

So here is my first story published on this side and in english. English is not my first language so I hope you will fogive it if there are some mistakes. I´ve done my best but I´m aware that my english is not perfect!

Now to the story:) I´d like to point out that his story is **strictly rated M**. There will be all kind of stuff that´s really not suitable for people who are underage or sensitive to themes like rape! There will be **violence, abuse, rape, corporal punishments** and probably much more. So please, if you don´t want to read things like this or feel offended by it, **don´t read it**! There are a thousand stories on this side which are probably much more suitable for you and what you want to read... just saying...

There will be additional warnings in each chapter as well, so please read them carefully!

Finally I want to say that I don´t support abuse, rape or everything related to it in the slightest!It´s something truly terrible, there is no other way to say it. This work, on the other hand, is fictional, it has nothing to do with reality. There is a difference guys! This means I don´t share the opinions of my characters and don´t support anything that is happening here in reality. I´d really like not to be flamed for it!

That said, I hope you enjoy reading and I´d love hear your opinion :)

 _Prologue_

The air all around me seemed to be freezing, leaving me in utter coldness… Or maybe it was just me, feeling frozen inside. With every step I took it felt harder to breath, as if there was an invisible barrier trying to hold me in place. My mind was screaming at me not to go. It was **begging** me. But my body was weak and my heart was even worse. I moved without realizing it.

The moment I entered the cold basement, I felt my insides clench, my heart starting to beat so frantically that it almost hurt. I had hoped to never see all of this again… but here I was. Everything had changed and somehow it was still the same. All the bad memories I connected with this place swirled around in my head; the loneliness, the fear, the pain. I hatedt his place. I hated it with my whole heart, my whole being. This ire I could feel deep inside of me spread through my body, filling me, drowning me.

Almost unconsciously my hand wandered to this little piece of skin right above my heart…the place that would never allow me to forget.

A part of me.

For a second I couldn´t move, was frozen to the spot. My eyes closed almost automatically while I forced my body not to panic. I felt my hands shaking and clenched them to fists, my nails digging into my skin, creating a calming tingle. The pain almost felt as good as did the hate. They reminded me that I was here, still living, still breathing… still feeling. Anger was the one thing I could focus on; the one thing that kept me sane. But anyway, no matter how hard I tried to deny it, the fear was still there, lingering in the back of my mind. I had to remind me that **I** was not the one being caged in this basement. Not this time. Tables had turned.

Taking a deep breath, I took a tentative step forwards, fighting with myself the whole time. There was actually a big part of me that thought I was silly- no scratch that- that thought I was fucking insane for being here, but I couldn´t help it. I _needed_ to see him and there was nothing I could do.

It felt like ages until I finally reached the bars of the closed door and had the courage to look inside. Every second felt like hours, stretching like I had never experienced it before and then suddenly I **was** looking inside the cell and everything happened in a mere second. There was just a movement, so fast that it made me dizzy, and he was standing right before me, looking at me through the big bars. My heart skipped a beat and by the little dangerous smirk on his face I knew that he had heard it. His exterior was perfection. The blue of his eyes was shining, the intensity in his gaze pulling me in. It was scary how easy it was for him to dumbfound me, to catch me in his spell. It was his old game. A game I had come to detest and love at the same time.

"You came," he said in his deep, velvet-like voice, his eyes shining like two silver balls and it dawned on me that he was actually **happy** that I was here.

My hands clenched into fists and I had a hard time controlling my body, to force myself to say something. "I did." Was all that left my mouth, my voice just a tiny whisper flying through the space between us and filling the basement. I winced by hearing my own voice, by hearing how much I sounded as if we were two lovers meeting again, when in reality we were anything but…

For a moment Damon´s eyes lit up and I knew that he had heard it as well: this sick longing, I couldn´t even start to explain. For a second he only looked at me, taking me in. His eyes roamed over my whole body before a smirk started to appear on his face. Slowly he leaned in on me, his face almost touching the bars now. His eyes pierced into mine. "I knew you would come," he told me with an air of seriousness surrounding him. His eyes were so intense that they shot showers of hot and cold through my whole body and I felt myself reddening without my consent. I felt irritated by his words, by the way he looked at me so superiorly at the moment, as if he knew something that I didn´t. He was playing games again, I could tell. And it unnerved me more than I would care to admit.

"That was quite optimistic." I said slowly, while I eyed him skeptically. "I mean, up to this morning I would have sworn that I would let you rot in this cell forever. You would sure as hell deserve it." I hardened my gaze while I watched him, promising me that I would not lose the grip on the conversation.

When he didn´t answer me however and just stood there, staring at me with this knowing smile of his I could almost feel how my anger was surfacing again. God, how I loathed him! "Can you stop this?!" I snapped, the anger not masking the fact that my voice was shaking.

One of his perfectly sculptured eyebrows rose up. "Stop what?"

I shook my head, feeling frustrated. Frustrated with him…and maybe even more so with myself.

"Stop looking at me like you have it all figured out. Stop looking at me as if it was clear that I would come!"I said more forcefully now. "Just stop it!"

The smirk on his face unnerved me. "But it was. Clear, I mean. It was just a matter of time."

I shook my head, denying his words, didn´t want to hear it at all. "No, you couldn´t have." I knew that my words sounded more pleading than anything else. I looked at him, looked into his eyes and hoped to see something there…anything that would help me to finally move on, to finally forget him.

I didn´t even realize that I had been leaning closer to him until it was too late.

In a second he had moved, his hand shooting through the bars of his little cell and before I could react he had already caressed my face, tucking a strand of my hair behind my ear. It was an innocent gesture but for me it felt like anything but. How dare he even touch me after everything he had done to me? Vile was rising in my throat and in a second I had pushed his hand away from me, glaring daggers in his direction. "Don´t. Touch. ME!" I growled at him heatedly and the way he simply smirked at me in return made me loose it even more. What made it worse was the fact that I had felt this silly electricity between us again. Even now I could still feel it. It was enough to just look at him, be close to him and my heart was making loops in my stomach. I had no clue how he was doing it, how I could hate and want him that much at the same time. I felt as if I was going mad and maybe that was exactly what was happening here. Maybe that´s what he had wanted right from the start?

Some part of me just wanted to go, to run away from here and finally escape but there was something in his eyes that held me here. I wanted answers, some kind of an answer at least. I needed… something.

Damon was watching my inner struggle contently, this silly smirk never leaving his face. Then very slowly, his hand extended out to me again. "Damon", I said warningly which made him chuckle. "Oh come on", he said with an amused expression. His hand cupped my face; pointing my chin in his direction and making me look at him. For a moment I struggled but after it became clear that I wouldn´t get away I ceased it, glaring in his direction while trying to ignore the turmoil his touch inflicted.

"Stop this", I pressed out between my teeth but Damon didn´t even seem to think about it, his look so smug that I wanted to scream, beg, run.

Finally he let go of my face but instead of backing away he leaned closer to the bars, so close that our noses were almost touching and I could feel the warmth of his breath washing over my face, could smell this sweet mixture of leather and Bourbon that was so typically him. I felt my breath becoming faster, felt my heart pumping blood through my system in an almost surreal speed. He was so close, so, so close and again I did and did not want it. Our eyes connected and I felt like I was drowning; deeper and deeper and deeper.

"Why are you lying to yourself?" he whispered against my closed lips, his voice velvet like, seductive. I felt shivers appear on my body. "It will be easier, you know, when you just accept it; accept that it was inevitable for you to come see me."I didn´t want to hear what he had to say but anyway it felt impossible to move as well while I listened to him; while I heard him say what I had known, deep down, all along. His eyes glistered. "You know just as well as I do why you can´t just forget about everything and move on with your life. Why it is impossible."

He was right, I knew the reason even if I hadn´t admitted it to myself up to now.

I hated it when he was right.

"You destroyed me," I breathed out, forcing my eyes to meet his. I wanted him to see the hate I felt for him but I was not sure that my hate was all he could see in my eyes. "I tried so hard, Damon, I did." I told him, finally admitting the truth, admitting the expenditure of my failure. It was sick and twisted that he was the only one I could admit it to. "I tried so hard to move on but I just cannot be who I was before. I don´t know how." His eyes glistered while he waited for my next words and I felt a big lump in my throat but I forced them out anyway, never breaking eye contact with him. "With every day you destroyed me a bit more. And I **hate** you for it." Finally my voice sounded stronger. Finally I had been able to tell him how much I loathed him. We both knew it was nothing but the truth.

"I hate you Damon."

He cocked his head to the side by hearing my words, searching for something in my face. For a second there was just silence between us and with each second I lost myself more in his intense stare. And then suddenly, without any kind of warning, he moved and his lips connected with mine in a demanding kiss, immediately erasing every thought I might have had out of my mind. His kiss was all consuming, intoxicating and so, so dangerous. I could feel his tongue invading my mouth and it was so familiar that I didn´t even think about fighting it. It would never do me any good anyway. My heart was beating painfully against my chest while I leaned closer to him and returned his kiss, enjoying the feeling of our tongues intervening and feeling repulsed by it at the same time.

I couldn´t tell how long we kissed, it was as if time was fading away and all I felt was him, just him. But then he stopped and the moment his lips left mine I realized what I had done. I was so stupid. SO STUPID. The whole weight of it crashed down on me and immediately my eyes filled with unshed tears. The feeling of pure horror invaded my body like some force of nature and from one moment to the other I wanted nothing more than to be away from him. With a little shriek I stumbled backwards until my back collided with the wall behind me. I was breathing as fast as if I had just run a marathon and my head was shaking furiously from side to side. This was all so much worse than I had thought. This was a fucking nightmare.

For a moment I just stood there, my eyes closed tightly while I tried to muster up the courage to look at him again. I didn´t want to be that weak. I wanted to be a strong person. I wanted to be a person, who could look him in the eye and show him that he was all wrong, always had been. I wanted to show him that it wasn´t so easy, that he couldn´t do what he had done. Yes, I wanted it all. I wanted it badly, desperately. But the truth was: It would all be a lie. He had caught me in his net and the more I struggled the tighter his hold over me grew. A bit more, I thought, and I wouldn´t be able to breathe anymore. I tried it, just to be sure, and it _hurt_. My eyes flew open, while I realized that the dark, my own thoughts were maybe not that much better. Very slowly I lifted my head and looked at his still standing form right behind the bars of the cell. His eyes were as cold as ice while he looked down at me. They were freezing me right to my bones. I couldn´t say that I was surprised by this change of attitude, by this coldness that was suddenly radiating out of his whole body. No, I knew him to well to be surprised and that made my actions only worse. I knew how he was, _what_ he was and still I had kissed him again. I couldn´t believe the expenditure of my stupidity.

Damon seemed to see my horror and slowly a small, dangerous smile started to grace his face while he eyed my quivering form possessively. "You might hate me," he told me, his voice almost unnatural calm. "But we both know that you love me as well. " A predatory smirk appeared on his face while his eyes seemed to burn holes into my body and his words shot like daggers into my body. "You wanted to know why you can´t keep away, Mai. **That** is the reason… You are here because in the end of things you know that you are _mine_ and nothing will ever change that."

I gulped and felt the weight of all of this crashing down on me. I wished he would be wrong, would be lying but I wasn´t all that sure. I **was** here after all, wasn´t I?

I was here, even though I knew how self-destructive this was.

He was like a bright, dangerous flame. And I was the moth, being helplessly drawn to it again and again, no matter how often I´ve already been burned. And then I recognized something else as well: it didn´t matter that it was Damon who was standing inside the cell right at the moment. No, in the end of things I was still imprisoned by him. He represented everything that was dark, was the manifestation of it. He had given me so many reasons to hate him, had hurt me in the worst ways and still here I was; still a part of me didn´t seem to be able to live without him.

It wasn´t that I didn´t see the truth. I could actually see it pretty clearly: somewhere along the way he had succeeded in pulling me from the light into his darkness. But in the end, after everything that had happened to me, everything I have been through because of _him,_ I was not sure anymore whether the light was really the more desirable of the two of them.

But on the other hand… wasn´t that exactly what he had planned right from the very beginning?

 _Day after day I dig further down this hole that I have made, and  
I don't know if each fistful  
I take brings me closer to a goal or to a grave.  
I'm in the black hole that you left me in,  
Digging to try to leave you behind.  
I'm in the black hole you left me in,  
Trying to get you out of my mind, before I bury myself alive._

 _I am the prey, swimming circles in a fishbowl on display.  
And I'm stuck here always, in a struggle to breathe  
Under an avalanche that won't stop falling. does this hole  
Lead straight to hell? cause I'm falling  
And all I know is lost under a black hole_

(Downplay: bury myself alive)


	2. Animal

Here we go! Chapter 2...

 **Warning! There will be violence, death, evilness...and mass murder I guess xD So if you fe uncomfortable with reading about this themes, or if you are underage, turn around now.**

 _A few months earlier…_

 **Damon POV**

There were quite a few people in this nameless little bar somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Damon could hear their enigmatic talk, their laughter, their flirting. There was happiness everywhere: in front of the old mahogany bar where several people were taking shots or just drinking bear, by the pool and billiard tables and especially on the little dance floor in the middle of the room. The people there seemed to have lost most of their control and were now swirling around shamelessly, following the wild beat of the music with exaggerated movements.

The wind was blowing forcefully against the windows, creating a cold rasping sound which echoed through the room but no one seemed to be aware of it except for Damon, who of course could hear the noises of the wind as clearly as he could hear the couple talking next to him. The thunderstorm seemed to gain strength and the rain was coming down in tons by now. It was a very dark, very rainy night, the kind of night where warmth seemed to be just an illusion, a concept made for better days. But all of this went unnoticed by the humans partying inside and Damon felt himself getting sick by all the happiness that surrounded him, closed in on him. _So much has changed_ , he thought darkly while looking at the Bourbon in his hands which was something about the sixth or seventh he had had this evening. He could clearly remember another time when people had been scared to death on cold, stormy nights like this. Rumors and superstition had been widespread and everyone had known and feared the evils of the night. It had been so delightful to see the panic in their faces when they had realized that their greatest fear had become true; when they had realized that one of these monsters was actually there to claim their life. And now look at them… nothing of this sweet fear was left. They did not fear the night anymore. No, they thought themselves ruler over it. But tonight Damon would show them how wrong they really were.

Damon took another gulp of his Bourbon while he tried not to think about the one thing that really bothered him. However it wasn´t quite possible to not let his thoughts wander back to the conversation he had had this morning. The moment was branded behind his eyelids and even now he could almost hear the voice of his informant again, as if he was standing right beside him.

 _There is a doppelganger._ The words repeated themselves in his head over and over like a mantra mixing and blurring together in his alcohol induced mind. _Doppelganger, doppelganger, doppelganger._

 _Are you sure?_ His own voice; unbelieving.

 _I have seen her. She looked like Katherine but she was_ _ **human**_ _and she behaved totally different. Her friends called her Elena._

A pause. Silence.

 _Where?_

Shifting. A foreshadow.

 _Mystic Falls._

Mystic Falls… Again. This town full of history, full of fate, full of pain. Some part of him screamed that he needed to go there for some reason but he couldn´t quite grasp why. Maybe that was why he was so upset right now. Damon was sure that he didn´t care for a doppelganger. Katherine was very pretty of course and her doppelganger would be as well but right there ended all his motivation to see the girl. If he had ever felt something for Katherine Pierce it was gone by now, nothing more than an echo of a past he had left behind. Right now he didn´t feel anything. But why did he _feel_ like he had to go to Mystic Falls then? It was bothersome.

When there was something Damon didn´t like than it was to not understand something… even if that said thing was his mind.

With a sigh and a dark look at the barkeeper he ordered another glass of Bourbon and continued drowning it in fast gulps. Even for his high tolerance level he had a fast speed today. He couldn´t say that he cared. At least he could feel the calming effect of the alcohol starting to take form in the pits of his stomach. Maybe he just needed to go to this godforsaken town and get it over with. He could stop for a short visit, kill the girl who dared to look like his personal nemesis and not think about it again. He would be away from this damnable town faster than he could look. He nodded slightly to himself. Yes, that sounded like a plan. Find her, kill her and forget all about it. Yep, sounded definitely like him.

Content that he had come to some kind of decision Damon turned his intention to more urgent matters. He hadn´t eaten for days now and he could feel the hunger burning inside of him. The news of this morning had been upsetting as well, only fueling his hunger, making it stronger than it had been in years. Normally Damon was careful not to leave proof of his presence but today, with all this humans around him, he didn´t thought he´d be able to control himself. Even right now, just sitting there, he could feel the probing of his canines, the burning feeling of his hunger in the pits of his stomach. Every cell of his body screamed to take what was due to him. The blood was calling him and he was not in the mood to deny his body anything at all.

 _I can feel the animal inside  
And my resolve is weakening  
Pounding at the doors of my mind  
It's nearly overpowering  
I cannot begin to describe  
The hunger that I feel again  
Run, if you intend to survive_

 _For the beast is coming to life  
Taking form in the glimmer of this tainted moonlight  
Death approaches on this night_

Very slowly Damon stood up, looking around, his eyes scanning the faces of the people all around him. Oh the choices he had…

With a little dangerous smile he made his way over to the door without a person noticing it. In a second he had fetched the little lock from his pocket. Outside he attached it to the door before he vamp speeded to the back entrance, sealing this door from the inside. _It is almost too easy_ , he thought while ripping the telephone wire with pure strength. Of course these humans possessed mobile phones today but fortunately, or unfortunately for his prey, there was no phone signal in this little Hicksville. Everything was playing out perfectly.

With long steps he entered the bar room again. He couldn´t wait any longer. The monster inside of him was screaming, demanding blood. His eyes focused on a tall girl with long brown hair while a predatory smile appeared on his face. He felt the animal, the beast inside of him taking control and he didn´t fight, loving the feeling of power that came with it.

Carefully he made his way to the girl. She was standing on the dance floor, swinging her hips in a sensual manner. Her eyes were closed, while she focused on the music, letting her body being filled with the fast beat of the drums. She´d certainly had a lot of drinks by now, for she seemed to be far, far away. When Damon reached her, he wrapped his arms around her body from behind, grinding himself into her body, pressing his erection into her ass. He could hear a tiny gasp from the girl's mouth and she whirled around, her eyes very big. They were a deep brown, Damon noticed with resolution. Honestly? He thought angrily. Was _everyone_ trying to remember him of _her_ today _?_

The girl eyed him for a second and just like that the look of surprise disappeared from her face and was replaced with a sexy grin. He could immediately smell her arousal. _Whores_ , he thought. They were all whores. Just like _her_. The grin disappeared from the girls face when she saw the veins appearing on Damon´s face. He knew his eyes would look red by now and he could feel his canines scrapping against his lips. He tilted his head while looking at the horror-struck expression on the girl´s face. "What´s the matter sweetheart, something bothering you?" he smirked, feeling the rush of the chase. They were all so weak. They had no chance against him. With a sickening smirk he threw himself at her.

 _I can hear it calling again  
The primal need is filling me  
Changes are about to begin  
And now my blood is boiling  
I can see the fear in your eyes  
But you can't bring yourself to scream  
Time to shed the mortal disguise_

He got hold of her long hair and before she could even think about screaming he had buried his face into her neck, biting without mercy, ripping flesh and muscles in the process. A deep moan escaped his throat when the sweet nectar of her blood started to fill him. It had been too long, he thought while pure pleasure was running through his body. Her blood was exquisite, the fear she was feeling making it so much sweeter. His body was on fire. He felt alive. The girl´s body went stiff in his arms and with a quick look at her Damon exposed of the body while his eyes were already searching for his next victim. He could hear some screams piercing through his bloodlust but didn´t care. The people seemed to have seen him killing the girl and in a second hell broke loose. Everyone was running, screaming. Damon smiled standing in the middle of the room and showing his long, white canines which were glistering with blood. It would be an entertaining chaise he thought. And like all predators he revealed in the chase.

 _We begin the hunt and I  
Feel the power course, as the creatures take fight  
For the kill is close and I  
Will be satisfied  
For the smell of fear tonight  
Wakes an ancient lust  
That will not be denied _

He got hold of another girl who let out a blood piercing scream. He could have easily snapped her neck before she had been able to make a sound but he didn´t really care. She could scream all she wanted to. No one outside would be able to hear her for every noise was blocked by the thunderstorm which raged outside. There would be no help tonight.

Another bite. Another kill.

People were running towards the doors, screaming in terror, crying in fear, while Damon was just standing there, a dark, tall figure in the middle of the room, enjoying every scream, every tear-filled cry. This had been a little bar a few minutes ago but now it looked like a field of war. Damon smirked evilly. Oh sweet destruction; sweet oblivion.

He could feel himself getting lost in the bloodlust, in the thrill of the chase, and was happy about it. He really needed to get some peace of mind tonight. He **needed** blood; more blood, much more blood.

His eyes focused on another blond girl who was shaking uncontrollably in fear. Her eyes were big and blue. She was pretty, her absolute fear only adding to her natural beauty. Very slowly a smirk, which could only be described as scary, appeared on his face. Oh yes, he would so get what he wanted. Tonight he would bath in blood.

 _(Disturbed/Animal)_

 **Sooo...I know this was kind of heavy. Damon´s feelings are completely turned off so he just kind of...well don´t care. This will change with time (well at least a little bit) but at first he will be as dark as it can get. The story plays in the timeline of season one but a lot of things will be changed, especially the whole story with Katherine. As you might have guessed from this chapter Damon and Katherines relationship is a bit different here than in the show and he already knows that she is not in the cave.**

 **I really would love to here from you so please leave me a review, tell me what you think and so on :D**

 **Love**

 **Disclaimer: I own nothing.**


	3. Obsession at first sight

_Red eyes stared down at me, devouring me. His grin was that of a little boy, his grin was that of a maniac. His face was covered with deep, red blood. I felt my heart exploding in my chest while I watched the face I knew so well change right before my eyes, becoming something else, something horrible._

 _My instincts screamed to run. My body didn´t obey._

 _I was fixed to the spot, unable to move, unable to do anything at all._

 _"_ _This is what you get," I heard his voice whisper, coming from nowhere and everywhere. "This is your fault. All of this is_ _ **your**_ _fault."_

 _I shook my head no, while tears were running down my face. No, I thought. No, no, no, no, no, no!_

 _It couldn´t be!_

 _It wasn´t true!_

 _Someone giggled right into my ear, the voice sounding boyish. I could feel him breathe right beside me. My head snapped to the sight but there was nothing there but thin air._

 _"_ _You are too slow." I heard his voice mocking me. "I am faster than anyone else now."_

 _"_ _It´s not possible," I whispered while I closed my eyes, trying to shut it all out, trying to escape it all._

 _Another chuckle. "You can´t close your eyes against it forever, you know," I heard the childish voice tease. "Someday you have to open your eyes."_

 _I shook my head no again, pressing my hands against my face, hiding, hiding, hiding._

 _A sigh. Another giggle. I could almost imagine his face, so familiar. But changed. Different. Wrong._

 _"_ _Come on, come on," he sang. "Open your eyes, little bird, open your eyes and see."_

 _I didn´t even think about it, knowing it would make everything worse, knowing that I wouldn´t like what I´d see._

 _"_ _I said, open your eyes," he said and now the playfulness had vanished from his voice. He sounded meaner, more menacing; a little cruel boy who wasn´t getting the treat._

 _I didn´t move, couldn´t, was frozen to the place. I didn´t want to see, never. But he had other plans._

 _"_ _I warned you," I heard him whisper and a second later I felt hands on my face, prying my arms away from my eyes. I looked, just shortly. But it was enough. The picture I saw burned into my eyes and I knew I would never be able to forget it._

 _A scream of pure terror escaped my mouth, while I was falling, falling, falling until I wasn´t any more, was gone from this earth._

 _Just like her. Just like the dead girl I saw before me. The murdered girl who was covered over and over and over in bite marks._

* * *

I shrieked, while I sat up in my bed, my heart hammering strongly against my chest. I could still see the picture of Lisa´s dead body before my eyes and just for a moment I thought, that it was all true. I thought that he was here right now and was going to murder me, just like he had murdered her.

My hands were grapping around me desperately until finally, finally I reached the light switch and warm light flooded my room, driving the darkness away. My eyes scanned my empty bedroom and very slowly I felt my heartbeat getting back to normal, my breathing becoming slower. It was just a dream, I thought with more than just a little relief. A nightmare. Nothing more. A nightmare I knew all too well. I had had this same nightmare at least a dozen times now, but it never ceased to scare me. I wished it would just let me alone, but obviously it wasn´t as easy as that. With a sigh I looked at my clock and realized that it was already 6.30 am. Just ten minutes and I had to stand up anyway. I was almost happy about it, knowing that I wouldn´t be able to sleep anymore. Besides it was a big day. Everything would change today.

It was the start of my new life.

"You can do that", I whispered to the image of myself in the little mirror before me, trying to force a confident smile on my face. It didn´t work out well, looking more like a grimace than anything else.

A little unwelcomed sigh escaped my mouth. I really had to get myself together. This was a start-over, a second chance. I wanted to leave the past behind me, did I not? So I really needed to act like it.

I needed to forget what had happened.

I needed to live in the present.

But as if my body wasn´t listening at all, it was just that moment that I remembered my dream of this night. Without wanting it, pictures of the past flashed before my eyes, pictures that I had done my best to bury in the depths of my mind. Pictures I really didn´t want to see. With a sigh I realized that this damn nightmare had shaken me more than I would ever like to admit. Most of the time I felt fine but there were moments, moments like this, when I felt as if I was going crazy. It was always the same. These pictures were hunting me and even though I **knew** that they weren´t true, that my mind must have made it up and showed me these silly pictures after seeing the terrible things I had seen, they still seemed so real. When I closed my eyes I could still see the canines, the face of a monster.

I shook my head, shoving these thoughts away. It had been month since my best friend died; month in which I had been troubled by self- doubts, by silly fears. And now was the time to get over it. Now was the time to get on with my life again. I knew that there was no better place than here, where nothing was reminding me of the way she died. It was my new beginning and I would make sure that it would work out for me.

 _I wanted this_ , was what I told myself. _I was ready for this._

I ignored the fact that I wasn´t.

For a second my eyes scanned my attire, making sure that everything was in place. My dark blue eyes looked back at me and this time I actually recognized a bit more confidence in them. I **could** do this.

I really was clueless.

* * *

When I entered the kitchen the amazing smell of coffee surrounded me and besides my bad mood today I couldn´t help but smile.

"Wow", I laughed while I saw that the table was already set. There was scrambled eggs and steaming coffee. "Who are you and what did you do with my brother?"

Lucas laughed at me. "Come on, it´s not as if I never do this."

I raised my eyebrows at him while I sat down and purred myself a cup of coffee. "Normally you stand up five minutes before school starts. You don´t even think about eating breakfast."

Lucas shrugged. "Well, today isn´t like every other day, is it?"

"I guess."

I tasted the scrambled eggs and moaned. "You know, you should cook more often. It´s delicious."

Lucas laughed. "We both know that eggs are like the only things I can cook. Do you remember the spaghetti a few weeks ago?"

I did. I giggled and rolled my eyes at him. "Ok, maybe your right."

Lucas nodded before purring himself a cup of coffee as well. There was a moment of comfortable silence while both of us ate. After a while Lucas looked at me again. "So are you up for today?" he asked and even though he said it lightly, I could clearly hear the concern that lay behind his words. I knew him well. My brother was a year older than me and I remembered that when we had been little we hadn´t been that close. We had argued a lot. But in the last years things had changed drastically. As long as I could remember our father had worked a lot and had never been home. But after ten years where my mother had just worked half the day she´d finally thought us old enough to be alone longer. She had started working fully again and since she was just as much of a workaholic as our father was, she´d suddenly never been here as well. I didn´t blame her for it though. I was old enough to understand that she was this type of person. She needed to work and she needed to be good in it, needed to have a high position, to be happy. Anyway it had been hard. I had been ten and Lucas had been eleven and suddenly, from one moment to the other, we had had to care for ourselves. My parents rose before sunrise and never came home before eight o´clock. Consequently, for most of the day, it had been just Lucas and me. So we had grown closer soon. I knew him better that anyone else in this world. He was my family.

Remembering his question I nodded lightly. "I think it will be good." I said with as much conviction as I could summon up. "You know, different people and all this. "

Lucas nodded. "You know, if you want to talk about it, you can always come to me right?" he added.

I sighed. I wasn´t surprised that Lucas knew that I wasn´t really over Lisa´s dead. I never talked about it but he knew it anyway. I loved that he cared. I really did. But that didn´t change the fact that I couldn´t bring myself to talk about what I have seen. Not with Lucas and surely with no one else. "I know." I said and smiled at him, honesty shining in my eyes. "Thanks."

He didn´t press it and I loved him even more for it. Lucas smiled at me before standing up. "Come on then, we don´t want to be late on our first day of school, do we?"

I shook my head while I downed the last rest of my coffee before following him to his car.

* * *

"That´s it?" I asked while looking at the little red building in front of.

"Disappointed?", Lucas laughed while he eyed the school as well.

I shrugged. "It´s not really…grand."

Lucas rolled his eyes at me. "What did you expect? Of course it´s not like our old school in New York…this is a little Hicksville if you haven´t realized it before. It is the kind of small town where everyone knows everyone and nothing ever happens."

"Didn´t you promised me to give this town a change?" I asked him, while thinking to myself that I actually liked the way the school looked. It seemed calmer, more personal. But on the other hand I knew that Lucas wasn´t really happy about leaving New York. Even if he would never voice it out loud, he had hated leaving his friends behind. If it had been just because my father had token a new job close to Mystic Falls, I was sure that he would have stayed in New York. He was 18 already so he could have lived on his own…Anyway, with everything that had happened with Lisa, I knew he didn´t want to leave me alone here in this new town. I felt bad for it sometimes.

I heard Lucas sigh besides me. "Yes," he said. "I did. And I´ll try, I promise."

I smiled at him. "I heard that they have a football team here as well, maybe you could join it? They are terrible but if you play there, I am sure that this will change."

The idea seemed to please him. "Do you know if there´s a try-out?"

"No idea, but that´s probably not difficult to find out."

Lucas nodded before turning right and parking his car. I took a deep breath before I extended the car, hoping that it would be all different here.

* * *

It was just a coincidence that I met Elena this day. Lucas and I had been visiting the secretariat together, getting our timetables before we separated. I had watched him go like ten meters, before he saw some guys wearing football jackets and went over to them. They talked for a few seconds before clasping hands. I silently shook my head by seeing this. I wondered how many friends he would have when we returned home from school today. He was just that kind of guy everyone liked.

For me it was always a bit more difficult. Where Lucas was open-minded, I guess I was just a bit more closed-lipped. Not unsociably so, but I had always been friends with just a few people. Therefore these friendships had been deep. At least I had thought that until my best friend had died and my other friend's didn´t even seemed to care too much. I tried not to think about it.

With a look at my timetable I realized that my history class started in five minutes and I had no clue where the room was. There actually was a plan on the papers I had gotten but when I was honest I sucked at orientating. Not wanting to be late I turned around and made my way in the direction where I expected the history classroom to be.

Ten minutes later I was desperate. I had found the room with the number 135 where my course should be, but the room was locked and no one had opened when I knocked. I was just thinking about walking back to the secretariat and asking where I had to go, when I saw two girls hurry along the floor.

Better than walking all the way back, I thought and ran after them. "Hey," I called and they turned around. I smiled at them. "Can you help me? I am searching for the history class, of…" I looked at my papers. "Mr. Tanner, but he isn´t in the room."

"Oh sure", one of the girls said. "We are actually on our way there. Mr. Tanner sent a round-mail, telling us, that the room had been changed."

She pointed to a door a few meters away. "It´s right over there." I smiled thankfully at her. "So I am not the only one who is late?" I asked as we made our way to the classroom.

The other girl laughed. "No, unfortunately, you are not. Mr. Tanner will be so pissed. I mean he is always pissed." She rolled her eyes and I couldn´t help but smile. Yes, this was good and normal. This was what I was searching for. But then I recognized what she had said and a little groan escaped my mouth. "Great, it´s my first day here and I already managed to piss off a teacher", I laughed.

"Don´t worry", the girl answered. "He cannot get that angry about you not finding the room. You´re new." Then she frowned. "We on the other hand have not such a good excuse. I just hope we don´t have to write an essay again." She said to her friend. "I totally needed hours the last time."

We arrived at the door and the girl grabbed the handle but before opening it she looked at me again. "I am Elena by the way. And this is Bonnie," she introduced.

I smiled, already liking them. "I am Maia, nice to meet you."

My smile was returned. "Nice to meet you, too," Elena and Bonnie answered at the same second. They looked at each other and laughed. "Ok Maia." Elena said a moment later with a resigned expression on her face which was a bit overacted. "Let´s face the devil." I rolled my eyes at her and we giggled before she opened the door.

* * *

They hadn´t promised too much. The moment we stepped into the room Mr. Tanner stopped talking while his eyes went to us. The classroom went still. Very slowly his eyes became smaller.

"Ah, did you decide to join us?" He asked snidely. Elena opened her mouth to answer but was interrupted by Mr. Tanners angry voice. "Again with your usual excuses, I suppose?" he belled at her, his eyes darkening.

"I´ve told you the last time you were late that it better shouldn´t happen again. I was lenient last year because of your loss but it is three month now Miss Gilbert and I expect you to get over it now and get back on track."

The whole class grew quiet while he said that. I could watch Elena´s body stiffening, tears threatening to appear in her eyes. I wasn´t quite sure what Mr. Tanner had meant but it must be really serious stuff. I almost felt how something inside of me snapped and without really knowing Elena, or Mr. Tanner or anyone else for that matter, I still felt this rage that suddenly appeared deep inside my stomach by seeing how this supposed teacher acted. He had just crossed an invisible line and everyone knew it. I disliked him even more. When Elena didn´t answer him he opened his mouth again, certainly to scream at her some more and I felt as if I couldn´t be quiet anymore. I needed to say something before he took it too far.

"Excuse me Mr. Tanner," I said into the silence and interrupted him right before he could say the first word. His mouth plopped close as if he was some kind of fish. It was almost comical. "It´s not her fault that we are late. It´s mine." His eyes darted to me and it seemed that it was the first time he even noticed me. His eyebrows rose.

"And who, may I ask, are **you**?" He inquired a bit startled. I forced a polite smile on my face. "I am Maia Ames, sir. I am new at this school and don´t really know the place of anything at all. Elena and Bonnie helped me to find the secretary and then showed me the history classroom. I would have been lost without them. I am sorry that we are late because of this but it really wasn´t their fault at all."

I could see him thinking, trying to find anything he could say against this. I mean he couldn´t punish Elena and Bonnie for helping a new classmate. He knew it too and I could see that this really angered him but after a while he nodded with a false smile. "All right, just don´t be late again."

We all nodded and I could see the relief on Elena´s face. Elena and Bonnie made their way through the classroom to their seats and I looked around, trying to decide where to sit. Elena looked at me again. "There is a free seat beside me." She said and I nodded happily at her, following and sitting down in the back of the classroom. Mr. Tanner was back at the desk and talking about the history of the town or something. When he didn´t see it Elena smiled at me and mouthed a _thank you_.

* * *

The sun was shining on my face creating spots of brightness behind my closed eyelids. I sighed contently before I rolled on my side and looked at Elena, Bonnie and Caroline, my new friends, who were lying beside me on the grass before our school. "It´s actually really nice here," I told them. "I never did something like that back in my old school."

Elena sat up and smiled at me. "Yeah, but we have luck with the weather this year. It is almost too hot." She fanned air to her head with her hands. Her face was just the tiniest bit red but it was good for her, making her even more beautiful if that was possible.

Caroline was sitting up as well and curved her lips into a slight frown. "I don´t know. I can´t understand why everyone likes the sun that much. I always get sunburned and ugly red dots everywhere." She said, starting carefully to massage sun lotion into her skin.

"Don´t you think the last three times you used the sun blocker were enough?" I giggled and heard Elena and Bonnie join in as well.

Caroline shot us a deathly glare. "We can talk about this again when you all have faces as red as a tomato and I still look fine," she said with a pout. Her eyes wandered to Elena and Bonnie and I could see them narrowing even more. "Of course you two probably won´t get sunburned, your skin is just too naturally dark, but you Maia should understand me at least."

I shrugged while letting myself fall back on the grass. "I´ve already used the lotion," I told her, while feeling very content here in the sun. "And the sun isn´t that strong yet." I smiled at her, still enjoying the feeling of the sun, the warmth. I couldn´t remember feeling that content for a long time.

"Yeah, yeah, tell that to yourself if it makes you feel better." Caroline replied, rolling her eyes. "I on the other hand think it´s better to be safe than sorry." With this she started to go for a fourth round of covering her skin with the sun blocker. I had a hard time controlling myself not to burst out laughing and when I looked at Elena I could see that she felt similar. She had her mouth pressed together tightly, concentrating on not making a sound. Fortunately Caroline didn´t seem to notice.

When Caroline finally was finished, she looked at me and clasped her hands together. "How about we give you some first inside into the school gossip," she said excitedly. Her eyes were glistering with excitement. "Sure, why not," I answered with a forced smile, reminding myself that I had wished for this, for going back to normalcy. School gossip probably was a part of it… even, when I was really honest to myself, I couldn't care less. I had stopped to care for things like these ages ago. I could feel Elena and Bonnie´s pitiful glances and looked at them curiously. They surely couldn´t know that I didn´t like stuff like this, could they?

A minute later I had the answer to that question. It was as if once Caroline had started, she couldn´t stop. **At all**. She was pointing out the different couples furiously, just to dish in all the rumors she had possibly ever heard. After three minutes my head was swirling and I had no clue what she was talking about anymore.

Another two minutes passed until Elena finally seemed to have pity on me. "Caroline, maybe it would be better if we would show Maia some people of our grade and tell her their names first. I am not sure that she has an idea what you are talking about."

"What?" Caroline asked, obviously not liking to be interrupted when she was gossiping. I looked pleadingly at Caroline. "I honestly have no clue what you are talking about," I said apologetically. For a moment Caroline just stared at me as if I was an alien or something but then she started to laugh goodheartedly. "You´re right of course," she told me. "You need to know the people first before you can understand how shocking the things I tell you are."

I shook my head, while I couldn´t help but laugh as well. Maybe she could be kind of annoying but I couldn´t help but like her.

"Alright," Caroline said, while looking around. "With whom should we start?"

For a while they scanned the people before Elena said. "Look, there is Matt. How about we start with him?"

I looked in the direction she was pointing. There were several boys standing together, all wearing football uniforms. "Which of them is it?" I asked.

"The tall blond, standing next to Stefan," Elena told me and I nodded, having seen him. He was the typical sunny boy: Tall, blond hair, blue eyes, kind of good-looking when you liked guys like him. "So what´s his story?" I asked Elena but before Elena could say anything Caroline irked in. "They were together for a few years, Elena and Matt. They were **the** couple of our school, before well…"

"I dumped him," Elena said and I could see some sadness in her eyes. "I just felt as if we were meant to be friends and not together but I am not quite sure if he is over it, yet. I mean we are talking and all but it simply isn´t like it used to be. He never really got over it."

"How long has it been?" I asked her and she shrugged. "Four month. I dumped him right after my parents died." She looked downwards, her eyes shining with unshed tears and I wanted to take her in my arms but wasn´t so sure if that would be the right thing to do. After the incident with Mr. Tanner she had told me about the accident of her parents. I didn´t need to be a genius to see that she was long from over it. In a way we were just the same, trying, pretending. Maybe that was the reason I liked her that much. After just a few days we had already become friends. And all of them, Caroline, Bonnie, Elena, they kind of gave me the feeling that I had been worried too much about this whole starting-anew thing-y. Maybe it wasn´t that hard at all. Maybe I could really do it.

After a second Elena swatted the tear away and looked up again. "Sorry", she said, shaking her head. "Sometimes it is hard to think of them." I nodded, understanding her completely. For a moment the sadness in her eyes remained but then she forcefully fought it back. "How about we acquaint you to each other?" She proposed and a second later she was waving at Matt, signaling him to come over. Matt saw her and nodded, saying goodbye to the boys and making his way over to us.

"Hey," he smiled openly at us and I immediately liked him. He had this easy-going aura, as if you could have a lot of fun with him.

"Hey Matt," Elena smiled back, though I could feel some tension between the two of them. "We wanted to introduce you to Maia. She is new at our school and we are just working on getting her to know everyone."

Matt laughed, while glancing at Caroline. "Yeah, I can imagine that." Then his eyes fell back on me and he smiled brightly, his eyes lighting up a bit. "Nice to meet you."

I returned his smile. "Yeah, you too."

"How about you sit down a bit Matt," Elena nudged. "Then you can talk or something." I looked at Elena, my eyes narrowing when I saw her expression. It was downright evil. When Matt didn´t look she winked. I rolled my eyes at her, feeling somehow uncomfortable for a moment because I was quite sure she was actually trying to make a match between us. Anyway, finding a guy really wasn´t on my top-priority list at the moment.

Matt, however, seemed to be obvious to the fact and talked freely to me. He was nice to talk to and after a few moments I lost my reservations and jumped in the conversation with him. It was easy and good and normal. And that was all I wanted.

* * *

 **Damon POV**

Damon stood in the forest, his body hidden in the shadows. His eyes were transfixed on the girls sitting on the grass not that far away from him. His mood was as dark as it could get. He could feel his hands shaking uncontrollably. All his instincts were screaming at him to leave his hiding spot and go straight to them. It took all his self-control to stay hidden and watch.

In a way Damon was more than surprised at how things had turned out. He had been in Mystic Falls for three whole days although he had planned to be long gone by now.

He couldn´t really understand why everything had suddenly changed. It confused him more than he´d like to admit. He could remember the situation that had changed everything vividly, which was no surprise considering that it had troubled his mind constantly since that moment three days ago.

Even now, when he closed his eyes, the scene played out again before his inner eye.

 _His car came to a stop right before MysticFalls High School. Damon could see kids standing before the entrance. They were talking enigmatically, some were smoking. He could hear their hearts beating, pumping blood through their veins. The first signs of hunger had shown again but he knew that this wasn´t the moment. There was just one person whose blood he would drink today._

 _Without a care, he left his car, while looking around, hoping to see the girl he was here for. Damon knew that he wasn´t very discrete about this whole thing. If he had wanted it, he could surely have been more subtle. He could have gathered information about her, trying to find out where she lived, trying to get her alone somewhere. Yes…he could have done all this, but when he was honest, he just couldn´t care less. He wanted this doppelganger-affair to be over and done with. His lack of patience surprised even himself. Normally he liked the chase which came before a catch. Normally he would have prolonged it, enjoyed it. But not this time._

 _Damon figured that he had wasted enough of his lifetime with this Katherine-bitch. He wouldn´t make the same mistake with her doppelganger. He had learned his lesson. Fool me once…_

 _That´s why he had decided to come right here, to MysticFalls High school, where he knew the doppelganger would be. His plan was as easy as it could get. Find her, manipulate her, kill her. Leave this damn town behind him._

 _His eyes scanned the schoolyard, while he leaned against his car. School hadn´t started yet, so there was a chance that she would arrive soon. He´d just wait for a bit, hoping that she would make it all easy and come to him. If not, he´d have no other choice but to enter the school and search for her. He wasn´t really in the mood to do that, his hunger making him moody, so he hoped for the sake of the people in this school that it wouldn´t come to that._

 _Fortunately he didn´t have to wait too long. He´d been listening in to the conversations around him for five minutes now, when he heard what he had been listening for._

 _"_ _Elena!", someone shouted and his head snapped in the direction. For a moment his eyes found the Elena girl and he registered that she really looked like a copy of Katherine maybe with exception of her hair, which was straight instead of curly and the honest smile that was on her lips. He was sure Katherine would never smile like this, so innocent and carefree. She was waving at someone and almost unconsciously his eyes followed hers, looking at the person who had called the doppelgangers name. It was something really insignificant to do, something that shouldn´t have mattered at all but somehow it did and Damon couldn´t help but stare at the girl that was making her way over to Elena. Even if he had wanted to, he couldn´t have looked away. He couldn´t believe what he was seeing. This girl that was saying hello to the doppelganger was beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. She was perfect_. _He felt shocked, but simply couldn´t help but look at her, stare at her, follow her every movement. She had very pale, but flawless skin which almost made her look seraphic. Her hair was dark brown and curly, almost reaching her ass cheeks and whipping around every time she moved, highlighting her perfect body even more. Her lips were full and her eyes were of the darkest shade of blue._

 _She hugged Elena and Damon saw her eyes lightening up, the smile on her face so bright and seductive that he felt his cock twitching, his jeans becoming almost too tight._

 _He shook his head, tried to clear his head, tried to figure out what the hell had just happened. His thoughts swirled around in his head and not one was about the doppelganger, even though she was the reason he was here. Anyway, right at the moment, he couldn´t care less._

 _Again, his eyes scanned her, taking in every little detail and the more he saw, the more he liked it. Her body, her tits, her legs…but her face as well. He couldn´t believe it, but he even liked the dimples that appeared when she laughed and the few freckles on her nose and her cheeks…_

 _What the_ _ **fuck**_ _was happening to him?!_

 _He couldn´t remember ever having been that attracted to someone like this before… and he had seen a lot of beautiful women in his life. He didn´t think that he had felt attracted like this when he had first laid his eyes on Katherine but on the other hand he had been human then, so he couldn´t be sure._

 _Damon watched her hungrily while she talked to Elena. Another girl arrived which Damon identified, to his great surprise, as the youngest of the Bennett witches. They hugged as well before making their way over to the school building. But even as they disappeared from his view Damon wasn´t able to get his thoughts away from her, his mind bombarding him with pictures of what he could do to her… what he_ _ **would**_ _do to her, he thought, unable to resist_ _ **that**_ _temptation. From the first moment he had laid his eyes on her that had been really clear to him. He needed to have her. There was no way around it._

Even now, three days later, his mind just wouldn´t stop imagining all the things he wanted to do to her body. It would be so damn delicious.

He had even postponed his plans for the doppelganger girl, who was, just to make everything even more complicated, dating his annoyingly saintly brother who magically seemed to be in town right at the moment. Surprises, surprises…

Damon had found out all these information while he had literally stalked the girl for the last three days, never leaving her out of his eyesight for long. Even for his standards this was kind of creepy but it wasn´t as if he really cared. He´d stopped caring a long time ago.

 **Her** laugh suddenly snapped him out of his thoughts and his eyes fixed on the scene before him again, the anger resurfacing while he watched her laughing about something remotely silly, the boy she was talking to, had said. He felt his muscles tense, ready to sprint out there and fight. It was almost painful now to hold back. He had never been really good in this anyway, denying himself. _And why should you_ , the darker part of him whispered. What was there that was holding him back? He could just as easily walk out there; kill the boy who dared to flirt with _his_ little human; and maybe fuck her right there and then. It was not that far beyond him. Maybe he could finally forget about her afterwards, he mused. Almost immediately his mind provided the fitting pictures, making his control slip more and more. _Come on, do it_ , the darkness whispered and Damon felt himself taking a step in her direction. Without being able to help it his fangs slipped out. He took another step and was just about to leave his hiding spot when his senses picked up something else. A scent. A scent he knew.

Damon cursed under his breath while he watched his little brother making his way over to the girls. He had a big smile on his face while he kissed the little doppelganger briefly on the lips. Damon´s eyes however remained fixed on the other girl, the one he couldn´t forget about. He was pleased to see that she had nothing but a little smile for his brother before she looked back at this Matt guy. It wasn´t that Damon liked her looking at Matt at all, but if there was anything worse than that, it was her looking at his brother. Damon had had his share of this when he had still been human. He´d shared Katherine with his brother and look how well _that_ had worked out. But he had been weak then. Now he was anything but… and he would be cursed if he would ever allow a girl _he_ wanted to look at his brother the way Katherine had looked at him. The girl was actually very lucky that she didn´t seem to have a thing for his little brother. Otherwise Damon wouldn´t have been able to control the monster inside of him.

But as things were, he concluded that it would be better to wait for a more fitting time to make his appearance. The presence of his brother complicated things right now and anyway just going out there and revealing what he was, was so not fun. No, Damon planned on making things a bit more entertaining.

She might not know it yet, but she was in for a hell of a tour.

* * *

I know the beginning is kind of a slow burn but it will get darker very soon.

I´d love to hear from you guys!


	4. Trouble

Hey guys! In this chap Maia and Damon are going to meet for the first time. Hope you´ll like it!

There are no content warnings for this chapter, but we´ll get to it soon.

 **Maia POV**

"Hello Ladies, another round of cocktails?" Matt asked, carrying a plate full of them in his right hand. Elena, Caroline and Bonnie chirred, before they practically jumped at him. "You really are the best, Matt," Caroline smiled brightly, her voice even a tad higher than usual because of the alcohol she had already consumed."Sure I am", Matt laughed before his gaze shifted to me. I smiled back at him while he gave me my cocktail. "Thanks Matt." I could see his eyes lightening up and even though it was cute it made me feel uncomfortable. It was obvious what the way he looked at me meant. It wasn´t that I didn´t like him but unfortunately this was all I felt for him. And I was so over trying to make relationships work where it simply doesn´t burn. I had had my share of this and I had promised myself that I would be really and overly in love with a boy before I would ever consider a relationship again.

For a while we talked with Matt before he had to go and work again. It was Friday and after a long week of school we had decided to have some fun this evening. Matt had proposed that we should go to the Grill, which seemed to be the only real bar in this town. He´d explained to me that he worked there the week-ends and that he would be able to bring us some alcohol even though we weren´t off age yet. We had already spent an hour in the grill and were by our third cocktail right now. Well, or bier, in Stefan´s case. You could already recognize the effect the alcohol was having on us. Especially Caroline was giggling constantly now. But anyway, it felt good. I was quite happy that I had made friends like them that fast.

I took another gulp of my caipirinha when the door of the bar opened. It had, of course, opened before but I had never really looked there. This time was different though. I didn´t know why. It was just a feeling, something that drew my eyes there.

I heard the door being opened and felt a shudder running down my spine. Without really realizing it my eyes looked in his direction as if he was a magnet pulling me in. My body tensed when I saw him and my heart started beating louder. He was absolutely beautiful, I thought, without being able to stop it. The guy who had just entered the bar and somehow was looking at me was **absolutely beautiful**. He had raven black hair which stood in huge contrast to his alabaster skin. His face was formed perfectly, his cheekbones prominent. His clothes were all black. He wore a leather jacket, a tight t-shirt which showed his well defined muscles and black boots. But the most striking were his eyes. They had the color of ice, were frosting but shining as well. It was the most intense, brightest blue I had ever seen and I was sure I could get lost in them for hours and hours if given the change. I wanted to touch him, run my hands through his hair. I could picture it in my mind, could almost feel his hands on my body, his eyes on me, and an evil glint in them. It was that moment that I snapped out of my thoughts, shell-shocked. What the hell was I thinking? I hadn´t even talked a word to him and my imagination was already running wild. That was so not normal for me.

Embarrassed I glanced up at him again almost expecting to see him look somewhere else but gasped when my eyes met his. I had been right I realized with a fluttering feeling inside my stomach, he definitely **was** looking at me, something like curiosity written in his eyes… curiosity and something different? Something difficult to grasp. His eyes were shining intensely with it. I felt chilly and looked away again, suddenly having a bad feeling. It was like an instinct that warned me about him, told me that his good looks were hiding something… darker. Suddenly I didn´t actually feel like I wanted to talk to him. I felt like I should be running.

Somehow angry with my irrational thoughts about a person I had seen for like ten seconds, I told myself to just ignore him, even when I could still feel his stare on my body, making me shiver. I shifted my attention to the conversation between my friends again and was surprised when I recognized that they had not noticed anything. I thought I had been more obvious and at the same time I was happy that they were oblivious to my silly thoughts. They would probably think I was kind of strange otherwise.

For a few minutes we talked and I tried my best to forget the beautiful stranger who had somehow succeeded in shaking me like this. I got more and more relaxed and succeeded in telling myself that I had just overreacted. I was having fun again and had almost forgotten him. I mean I probably **would have** forgotten him if Stefan hadn´t suddenly tensed. I looked curiously at him, being the only one who had recognized it and followed his gaze, landing on… **him**. My mouth dropped open. What the hell…?

He was making his way through the crowd towards us, a little confident smirk plastered on his face. The closer he came the more Stefan tensed and I was looking from one to the other, trying to figure out what was happening here. The others seemed to have noticed Stefan´s behavior as well. They seemed to be just as confused as I was.

 _That guy_ stopped just half a meter before our table. He was smiling slightly and looked at all of us, self-confidence radiating out of every cell of his body. When his eyes landed on me my breathing hitched and I tensed in my chair, thinking that _something_ was so wrong and weird about him, but I couldn´t point out what it was exactly. His eyes seemed to linger on me for a while and it was as if time stopped. I returned his gaze, trying to appear unfazed although my heart was beating frantically. I had the feeling that he could see right through my act, a little smirk replaying on his face. This all felt so intimidate for some reason, I couldn´t even start to figure out. Then the moment was over and he turned his full attention back to Stefan.

"Well…," he said, his voice sounding hot and cold at the same time, like velvet, full and rich; it was the most intimidating voice I´ve ever heard. "I was surprised to see you here Stefan. I didn´t know you were in Mystic Falls again." It was a normal thing to say but somehow I had the feeling there was something more to his words, some hidden message.

Stefan tensed, but forced a smile on his face. "Yes, I moved here a few weeks ago. You know I always wanted to return to Mystic Falls… but why are you here, Damon? I thought you hated this town."

Damon… I thought. So that was his name. It fitted him. It sounded good. God, even his name was sexy…

Damon´s smirk grew even wider and there was some arrogance as well; arrogance and self-confidence. "Now, is that a way to greet his brother after not having seen him for that long, Stefan? Not happy that I am here? I must say I am hurt." He replied overdramatically, putting one hand to his heart.

But all I had heard was something else, one word. Brother? They were brothers, I thought and somehow everything became clear then. They actually did look alike when you knew it. There was some resemblance in their features, in the way they talked. But even after seeing this Damon for only a minute I could already tell that their characters were the total opposite. While Stefan always seemed to be thoughtful and brooding, Damon acted more confident, more out-going. He had this entire bad-boy aura whereas Stefan seemed to be more the nice guy. But at times Stefan could be mysterious as well. i

"Brother?" I heard Elena ask beside me echoing my thoughts and looking as surprised as I felt. "I didn´t know that you have a brother Stefan?" She said and there was a little sound of hurt in her voice.

Stefan looked uncomfortable at Elena. "Well, it never really came up." He answered lamely and Elena narrowed her eyes at him but didn´t say more about this. Anyway I was sure the topic was not closed yet. She would talk later with Stefan about it because I was sure I had not been the only one to see that Stefan was hiding something.

Damon had looked at her when she had spoken and smiled slightly now. It made him even more beautiful. "Won´t you acquaint me with your little friends here, baby bro?" he asked, nudging his brother to reply.

Stefan looked uncomfortable which made me question if something might have happened between the two of them. He acted as if he wished Damon to go away or something. Damon on the other hand seemed to find this whole situation very amusing. I was not sure what to think about it. It seemed odd in some way.

"Sure." Stefan said at least after a few seconds of tensed silence. "This is Elena," he shifted uncomfortably. "She is my girlfriend," he said, pointing at her. "And these are Bonnie, Caroline and Maia." I smiled politely at Damon as Stefan said my name but felt more than uncomfortable when Damon´s piercing eyes met mine, holding them for a moment and burning with this _something_ again.

Then the moment passed and Damon looked at all of us, smiling politely although I had the feeling that there was something _off_ with his smile. All this guessing and not knowing was making me crazy at this point. "It is nice to meet you all. I am Damon Salvatore." He said with a charming smile. "If I had known my brother has such beautiful ladies as company I would most certainly have visited him earlier."

The words rolled of his tongue sensually and I heard Caroline gasp lowly beside me, obviously being flattered easily by his charming behavior. I couldn´t help but roll my eyes. He obviously was a jerk and a little too overconfident for my liking as well. Well a very handsome jerk, to grace the truth, but arrogant none the less. Didn´t she see that? "It is nice to meet you too." She said flirtingly, her voice high and her smile too bright, too much. I rolled my eyes just again. Oh come on!

I heard Damon laugh lowly and looked up, just to see his eyes on me, glittering with silent laughter. I blushed, realizing he must have seen me rolling my eyes. Shit. I stared back, trying to hide my embarrassment. For a split second he held my gaze and I could have sworn he was winking at me before he turned to Caroline and replied politely, starting a conversation. For a few seconds I was speechless before I tried my best to shrug it off. He was just a jerk, I told myself; just a jerk, nothing more. It was hard to remember that fact, anyway, when he looked at me like he just had.

For a while it was just Caroline and Damon who were talking, then Elena started to participate in the conversation as well. Stefan didn´t say a word. He seemed to be tense and full of worries but I couldn´t really understand why. I mean Damon was his brother. Should he not be a bit happier to see him?

I kept quiet as well, just listening to the conversation. I didn´t really know why… It was just that Damon somehow created a bad feeling inside my stomach. I couldn´t place it but anyway I didn´t really feel like talking. There was all this unspoken stuff going on and I had a hard time by trying to figure out the reason for that thick tension. I couldn´t understand how the others could be that obvious to it. From time to time I felt Damon´s gaze on me again and it became more and more irritating. After a while I stood up, earning a few looks from my friends. "I am going to the washroom." I announced and just like that their attention shifted back to Damon. He had that kind of aura, consuming the attention of everyone around him.

As I made my way through the Grill I suddenly had the feeling of being watched and when I looked back at our table I could see Damon staring at me while pretending to listen to Caroline. His eyes seemed to be almost dark now, lustful. When he saw that I was looking a small grin appeared on his face and instead of looking away he kept staring, his eyes roaming over my body shamelessly. It was as if he was undressing me with his eyes right here and I really felt kind of naked before him as if he could look directly into my very soul. I felt myself blushing and fastly turned around again, almost sprinting to bathroom, escaping him.

I remained there for a few minutes, scolding myself for my silly behavior. I mean he was just some guy. No reason to be that startled. Anyway, I could not deny that he had some sort of effect on me. He was a little too confident, a little too arrogant. It was like he thought he could get anything he wanted, like the world was down at his knees. He behaved as if that was all just some kind of game to him. And that was what had unnerved me the most, that all I had seen was a mask and not the real Damon. _He_ was hiding somewhere behind the polite exterior and I could not tell if the person hiding was someone good or bad. Or maybe I just thought too much about it, I scolded myself.

I should really just go outside again and face him. I would probably never see him again, anyway. No reason to get that freaked out. With a sigh about my own silliness I left the bathroom, with every intention to return to the table, just to run exactly into a hard body. I shrieked, not having seen anyone. When I looked up I was met with intense blue eyes. A gasp escaped my mouth and I stumbled back, before I could rebuild my composure. "God Damon, you scared me." I stuttered, forcing a laugh while I held one hand to my heart. It was beating frantically.

"I´m sorry. It was never my intention to startle you… Maia, is it?" He asked while he leaned casually against the wall, his eyes taking me in.

I nodded and waved it aside. "No problem. I guess I was lost in thought."

He grinned mischievously. "Thinking about me?" He inquired with what seemed to be a flirty grin. "I mean no one would blame you. Most girls in here are probably doing the same."

For a moment I looked at him, not sure what to make of _this_. Could he get any more arrogant? Finally I decided that he had probably just made a joke. So I rolled my eyes at him.

"Cocky much?" I taunted half exaggerated, half amused. He grinned at me with self-confidence, making something with his eyes which was (I had to admit it) really sexy. "Very," he exaggerated, his eyes widening a friction. He shifted his position, bringing his whole body closer to mine, leaning in on me and invading my personal space shamelessly. But although I felt kind of intimated by his behavior, the way he had said the last word, the way his eyes had widened in overacted drama, just looked so funny that without really thinking about it a high nervous laugh escaped my lips. I didn´t know whether this really was funny or just a reaction of my body to downplay the situation, to not admit that I felt uncomfortable because he was so close.

His eyes narrowed a friction. He obviously didn´t like to be laughed at. "I don´t see what is so funny." He told me and I shook my head, not really able to stop laughing. Did I imagine it or did it sound almost hysterical? He probably thought I was a freak. I couldn´t understand why I was reacting that stupidly to him. "Sorry, nothing. I have just never met a guy who is that sure about himself. It is… fascinating." I explained and he rolled his eyes.

"Well, I am happy that I am fascinating you." He said it just half sarcastically, rolling his eyes _again_. This really seemed to be his thing. "Maybe I can continue doing it by a drink. What do you think? Can I buy you something?" He smirked at me and I was almost sure that he didn´t expect me to deny him. I gulped, thinking hard. I remembered that just half an hour ago I would have given lots of things for something like that but right now I did not have a good feeling. It was like my instincts were warning me or something. "Ah…" I said, trying to come up with an excuse. He raised his eyebrows.

"Don´t you think it would be better to return to the others. They will ask themselves where we are…" I finally said with a little shudder in my voice.

He laughed wholeheartedly at this. "What are you afraid of? That they will think we are hiding in the bathroom… together?" He came even closer and I gulped heavily. I could almost feel his breath tingling on my face now while he looked down at me with his shining blue eyes. From this position I could see his well formed muscles under his tight t-shirt. His hands were on both sides of my body now, trapping me in. I felt very small in this position. When he talked again his voice was much lower, seductive. "Of course we can go there, making sure we´re alone… when **that** is what you really want."He breathed, his face just inches away from mine, creating the picture in my mind. Oh God… I blushed furiously at his blunt statement and my vivid imagination while shaking my head wildly. "No, I… I didn´t mean it that way… I just thought…" I was stuttering like an idiot. God I was acting so stupid! Why did he have to have such an impact on me? His proximity was confusing me, making it so hard to form a coherent sentence.

Damon chuckled by seeing my discomfort and to my great relive took a step back. From one moment to the other he was back to being just a friendly stranger, completely acting like none of this had happened at all. "I am just joking," he grinned, looking at me with an expression which was meant to be innocent. It was not.

"Don´t worry. They will be able to see us at the bar." He said then and I had to admit that he was actually right. Damn it. Where was a good excuse when you really needed one?

"Come on." He told me and grabbed for my hand. I tried to take it away before he could reach me but he was faster and before I could do anything he had already dragged me along. With a sigh I realized that I would probably not get away right now, but what could happen? We were in a bar with lots of people all around us. But why the hell was I feeling that afraid then?

 __When Damon ordered it was not just for him but for me as well. He didn´t even ask what I wanted and the bad feeling inside of my stomach increased. I didn´t know what it was exactly, but something about him really freaked me out. In addition I had no clue at all what I was actually going to talk about with him. Damon, however, didn´t seem to have this problem.

"So," He said after ordering Bourbon for the both of us. "You are friends with my brother?"

I nodded but thought better of it after a second. "Well I think we might become friends someday. I just know him for a few days so… it is probably too early to call us this."

Damon raised his eyebrows in question. "You met him when he became Elena´s boyfriend?" He tried to understand.

I shook my head. "No, they are already together for a few weeks… that´s longer than I know him. I moved to Mystic Falls a week ago and Elena and Bonnie were the first people I got to know here."

Damon nodded. "Where are you from?"

"New York City"

He looked a bit surprised. "Well, you didn´t strike me as a big city girl." He told me bluntly and I shrugged. It was not for the first time that someone has told me something like that. Obviously I was not like someone would imagine a girl from New York but it never bothered me much. Not everyone could be the same and I just never have been that much into fashion and all this stuff. That doesn´t mean that I don´t give a damn about what I wear but I guess there have always been more important things to me. Damon´s eyes roamed over me, obviously imagining me in New York. "It must be very different to live in a small town like Mystic Falls." He said at least.

At this I could not help but laugh. "Yes, you cannot imagine how shocked I was when I learned that this was the only bar here. I mean just **one** in a whole town!" I shook my head in astonishment which made his mouth quirk up into a little smile. "And everyone seems to know everyone else. It is like I have already met half the people of this town."

Damon laughed. "Do you miss New York?" he asked me. His eyes were observing me as if he tried to grasp the answer just by looking, as if he wanted to figure me out or something. I had never seen someone look at me like this before. I gulped and shifted a bit in my seat, feeling slightly uncomfortable while I thought about his question. "Well..." I started, not sure what I was going to say. "I kind of wanted to get away from New York," I finally admitted. "My dad got a job here and I wasn´t really complaining." I wasn´t even sure why I was telling him. I haven´t talked about this with anyone here.

Damon was still observing me carefully, his eyes two deep holes; his gaze intense, too intense. A shutter ran down my back. I felt hot. "And why would you want to go to a little Hicksville like this?" he asked. "If you could have New York, I mean."

I gulped and suddenly felt silly. I didn´t even know him and I certainly didn´t want to tell him my true reasons. I should have kept quite in the first place.

"I…Uhh… well my best friend there… she…" I gulped. "…died. And everyone else just seemed to be over it in like a few weeks, but I couldn´t. I mean… I didn´t feel good there anymore. I don´t know…" I trailed of and looked at the table, trying to understand why I was actually telling him this. Of course it was not nearly all that had happened but anyway I had just told him more than I had told anyone else here. After a few seconds I looked at him again and was shocked from the intensity of his gaze. He was just a few inches away from me. I could easily touch him if I wanted to. With a shake of my head, I focused on what I wanted to say and tried desperately not to think about his closure or how soft his lips looked and how they would feel on mine. "It was just good to get somewhere else," I continued after a while. "And even if I could have never imagined it, I actually like it here. In New York everyone is so distant. Here everything is different. The people seem to be so much closer to each other, so much more helpful. I don´t know. I just somehow feel more right, or more in place here… like I belong here or something."

I laughed lowly. "Well I think I sound a bit crazy right now. Sorry, don´t listen to me."

"Don´t worry. I don´t think you sound crazy at all." He told me with a smile that almost let my heart melt right before him. He really was beautiful like this and I knew I would have already fallen hard for him, if I would not sense that there was something… off.

I took a deep breath and tried to calm my nerves before I looked at him again. I had never seen anyone with eyes like his. I was sure girls would fall in tons for this look of his. Damon returned my gaze and thick tension started to build between us. He was just looking at me but it felt as if he was somehow doing much more. I had the urge to touch him but that would have been really, really strange so I controlled myself, something that seemed considerably difficult around this guy.

And what made it all worse was that it seemed as if Damon felt the same. His eyes were as intense as if they wanted to strip me of my clothes right here in the middle of this bar, as if he had a hard time controlling himself. Very slowly he leaned closer to me and I was almost sure that he was going to kiss me. The rational part of my body screamed at me that this would be a very, very silly idea. It screamed at me to move, to run, but I was frozen to the spot, captured in the spell of his eyes which was holding me in place cruelly.

He was leaning closer again and I was sure that at this point I would really let him kiss me. I mean deep inside of me I knew there were a billion reasons why I shouldn´t but looking in his eyes I couldn´t remember even one.

But suddenly, just when he was so dangerously close, the barkeeper appeared and put our drinks right before us. The sound of it drove me out of this strange trance and I jolted backwards, bringing some well needed space between us. My head cleared immediately and I silently cursed myself. What the hell had I been thinking, almost-kissing a guy whom I had thought dangerous and strange just minutes ago? I shook my head at myself while I tried to catch my breath again and appear as unfazed as possible.

When I looked at Damon again, he seemed to be slightly pissed by the interruption but in a second this feeling just seemed to vanish from his face as if it had never existed while he turned to pay for our drinks. A mask, I thought while I watched him. That was exactly what it was. A mask of politeness. I still wondered what was hidden beneath. I kind of felt more and more uncomfortable here.

When Damon turned around to me again and took a gulp of his Bourbon I tried to overact my unease with a smile, pretending that nothing of the last minute had actually happened.

"So we have talked about me the whole time. What is about you? What is your story?" I asked him lightly while I looked at the liquid in my glass. I wasn´t convinced that I really wanted to take a gulp. I didn´t have much experience with drinking hard stuff like this and getting drunk in his company somehow seemed like a very silly idea. When he didn´t answer right away I glanced up at him shyly feeling more and more unsure of myself.

For a moment I had the feeling that his eyes darkened by hearing my question. It made him look different… much more dangerous. But then it vanished again before I could be sure that I had really seen it and his trademark smirk was back in place.

"There is not much about me," he answered just as lightly. "Stefan and I were born in Mystic Falls. My mother died shortly after giving birth to Stefan and after my father passed away as well I left town. I traveled a bit, was here and there. Stefan left town eventually as well and I haven´t seen him since. Well, until today." He paused for a moment. "Like I´ve said there is not much."

"I am sorry. "I said. "I mean about your parents."

He just shrugged it off. "It was a long time ago."

"Is that the reason you and Stefan don´t get along?"

Damon looked at me, surprise clearly written on his face. "Who said we don´t get along?"

I rolled my eyes at him. "It was pretty obvious. The tension between the two of you was tangible."

He raised an eyebrow at me. "Is that so?"

I couldn´t help but grin by hearing the shock in his voice. "Yes, it was **that** obvious."

He chuckled a bit and leaned closer, his eyes widening just a friction which made him look very sexy. "Or maybe you are just very attentive", he breathed and somehow his tone made his words sound much more intimate than they were. I couldn´t help but blush, heat creeping into my cheeks by the way he looked at me. God, I really needed to calm down. What the hell was happening to me?

For a few seconds I was enthralled by his gaze before I realized that I was almost drooling all over him. I really needed to get a grip on the situation again. I cleared my throat and tried to concentrate on the conversation. "So eh… are you going to tell me what problems you have with him?" I asked him, feeling my curiosity kicking in.

"Nope," He plopped the P and looked at me with a smirk. " **That** is none of your business."

I huffed at this but decided to let it go. The atmosphere was much too tensed anyway at the moment.

"All right," I answered, although I really was curious. I simply couldn´t help it. "I can understand that but then you have to tell me something else about yourself. I have talked about me as well. It is only fair." I looked into his eyes, batting my eyelashes and giving him my sweetest smile. I really was curious about his life. All about him, the way he talked, looked, behaved was so mysterious. And I felt like he was hiding something. I wanted to know what it was. I was… intrigued you could say, and maybe, I thought, maybe when I could come behind his secret, I would not feel that afraid anymore. Maybe if I could understand him better, I could actually consider dating him… I stopped short. Ughh, what was I even thinking? It wasn´t like he would want that, right? I mean he could probably have every girl he wanted. Ok, he had almost kissed me but that probably didn´t mean anything, right? Right?!

"I already told you. There is not much about me," he said and I was pulled out of my thoughts cruelly. My eyes flew up to meet his by hearing the change in his tone. He looked darkly at me and his eyes told me to just quit it. For whatever reason he really didn´t want to talk about himself. Anyway I was far too stubborn to just let it go. I wanted to know something about him, to understand him better and I was not going to give up that easily.

I returned his gaze directly, challenging him. "Come on, Damon. There must be **something**." I stretched. "I just want to get to know you." I was not prepared for his reaction.

"There is not," he snapped at me, his whole demeanor changing in a second. His eyes were suddenly cold as ice, piercing into me and making me shudder and his voice indicated that he would not talk about it anymore. I was suddenly really afraid. It was not what he had said but the unbelievable coldness in his voice, the way he glared at me. I gulped trying desperately to subdue my fear. Something with him was really, deeply wrong.

In a second the decision was made that I would no longer sit here with him and let him behave like that. I mean he almost kissed me and a minute later he got that angry over a harmless question. It was just silly. I had enough.

I stood up, now almost as angry as he was.

"What are you doing?" he asked me, his eyes narrowing instantly. I glared at him in return. "What does it look like?" I returned, my voice trembling with anger, my hands clinched to fists. "I am going back to my friends. I didn´t even want to be here in the first place and I certainly don´t need you snapping at me over such a simple question." In the last second I remembered my manners. "Thank you for the drink, anyway." I couldn´t help but let it sound slightly sarcastic. I hadn´t touched it.

Damon looked surprised at my outburst and then his eyes became even colder. I couldn´t care less. He was a jerk, exactly as I had thought right from the start. Without looking at him again, I turned around with every intention to return to Elena and the others as suddenly I felt a hand clamp around my wrist, tightening. I whirled around with big eyes, facing Damon who had stood up and was now looking down at me. He was just a few inches taller than me but right now it felt like much more. I had never seen someone that intimating before. His expression was deadly; I could not describe it in another way, his eyes glistering dangerously. My heart immediately started to pump faster. "Oh no, _you_ are not going anywhere," he told me and before I had a change to react he had already pulled me down on my chair again. I looked at him incredulously. This could so not be true! What was the matter with this guy?

"Damon." I said with a warning in my voice. "Let go of me **now** or I swear I will..."

He raised his eyebrows, mocking me. The angry expression on his face was gone now and replaced with his usual smirk. His eyes twinkled with amusement. They were cold none the less. "Or what," he wanted to know, leaning closer to me in a way that I had no other chance than staring up to him. "What will you do? What **can** you do sweetheart?" He was close, invading my personal space just again.

I wanted to punch him in his just too handsome face. I desperately wanted to, but I held myself back, suppressing my anger and fear and tried to steady my expression. "Let go of my or I am going to scream." I finished my sentence in a calm, cold voice. "We are in the middle of a bar with lots of people all around us, if you haven´t notice Damon. So I believe the real question is: What can **you** do." My voice sounded surprisingly strong although my breath was a bit quicker than normal. I felt shivers running down my body uncontrollably.

Unfortunately my speech didn´t have the intended effect on Damon. Instead of letting me go he pulled me even closer so that his face was just inches away from mine. "You will scream?" He breathed, making eye contact. I felt a bit foggy somehow but nodded none the less, preparing to do exactly that, in case that he didn´t let go of me in the next five seconds. He chuckled coldly. "I don´t think so."

Before I could prove him wrong, his eyes suddenly seemed to change, becoming bigger for a few seconds and then shrinking again. For some reason I could not look away. I felt like a deer caught in spotlight. It was not a good feeling.

When he spoke his voice seemed to come from everywhere, was pushing in on me from all around.

"You will not scream, nor will you do anything else to indicate to another person what is happening here."

I felt dizzy, not even noticing that I nodded or that I repeated his words in a monotone voice.

When his eyes left mine I didn´t even really know what he said but what I knew was that I didn´t want to scream. Not anymore.

Damon looked at me with a smug expression and I shook my head, feeling a slight headache building. Why the hell was I so confused? There was definitely something wrong here.

"Wh… what did you do?" I asked him in a tiny voice although I was not sure that he had done anything at all.

"I compelled you," he answered me as if it was the most normal thing in the world. I looked at him without understanding. Compelled? What did he mean by this?

Shaking my head, I concentrated on what was actually really important. "Damon, I want to go." I said again, looking at his hand which was still holding my wrist. I tried to pry it away but his grip never even wavered. This was so not good.

"Ah ah ah," he scolded me. "Stop struggling. It is pointless anyway. You are not going until I want you to." I gasped at this, my eyes widening in surprise. I really was afraid now. I had thought that he was strange… but this. This was much worse. He was not just strange, he was fucking insane!

I felt the overwhelming urge to run as fast as possible but I could not. I was stuck. And no matter how hard I tried I could not scream, could not look at other people, could not say that I needed help. What the hell was happening?

My heart started beating frantically and I felt tears stinging in my eyes but willed them back. I needed a plan, but my head was strangely empty.

Damon seemed to be amused by my fear, his lips curling up into a light smirk. In this moment I thought that I hated him more than I had ever hated anyone before.

"Please," I said. "I don´t know what this is, but please just let me go." I hated pleading with him, but although he hadn´t done anything yet, I knew that I was in serious danger. All my instincts were kicking in, telling me that I needed to get away from him as fast as possible.

Damon didn´t say anything at first but pulled me to my feet in one swift movement. "Sorry can´t do," he chuckled. "I am not done with you yet but maybe I´ll let you go afterwards. We´ll see." He winked at me and pulled me closer to him, putting an arm around my waist. I could feel his mouth in my hair, when he whispered in a deep voice which made me shiver uncontrollably. "But first, we need to get out of here. It would be in your best interest if you´d just come with me." The threat was easily audible in his voice.

And I didn´t even think about it. There was no way I would go anywhere with him willingly. Taking a deep breath I tried to collect all my strength and courage for my next step. Then I lifted my foot and brought it down hard on his, pushing him away with all the strength I had at the same time. I caught him by surprise and actually succeeded in getting away from his touch. But in a second he had whirled around and was looking at me with a growl, danger radiating out of him with a strength that was stunning me. "You shouldn´t have done this," he told me in a threatening voice, too quiet for anyone besides me to hear. He took a step towards me and I stumbled back, asking myself why no one was helping me. Surely someone must have recognized the situation I was in, right? Right?

Another step and he was almost directly in front of me. God, he was fast. I wanted to scream, but nothing ever came. It was one of the most terrible sensations I had ever had. My own body was betraying me and it felt alien, terrifying, wrong. I could see his hand coming to grab me again, drag me away to do whatever it was he wanted to do with me but in the last moment someone stepped between us. My heart almost stopped before pure relief was flooding my body. I wanted to embrace this person and never let go again.

"What are you doing Damon?" I heard a voice say. It took me a moment to recognize the voice but then I sighed. Stefan. He must have seen what Damon had done. And then another thought struck me. Maybe that was the reason they didn´t get along; because Stefan knew how Damon was, what he did.

Stefan was facing Damon so all I could see was his back and not his face but therefore I could see Damon´s expression very clearly. He was facing his brother with something like annoyance written on his handsome face.

"I don´t think that is your fucking business, Stefan," he answered him, his anger just barely contained.

"Oh but I think it is," Stefan replied, his voice almost as angry as Damon´s. "She is Elena´s friend and I will not let you use her."

Damon laughed mockingly at this, a laugh that created Goosebumps all over my body. "And what will you do to stop me, Stefan? We both know I am stronger than you. We both know you cannot stop me to get what I want." His eyes travelled to me, locking with mine. "And you know what brother? I want **her**. And I **will** get her."

I gulped. Hard. His words sounded so much like a promise that it almost made my knees goes weak with fear.

He smirked slightly by seeing my reaction, by seeing the fear in my eyes. Then he looked at his brother again and added with a grin. "But not right now. Right now I tend to someone more… easy." His eyes darted through the room, scanning the people. Then they stopped, remaining by someone. A big smirk, which made him look really insane, appeared on his face. "And I know exactly where I will get it. So if you´ll excuse me, Stefan, Maia."

Without another word he turned around and went straight through the Grill. I could see Stefan´s body going rigid as he recognized where Damon actually was heading but, before he could move, his brother had already arrived at the table.

"Shit," I heard Stefan mutter under his breath. I watched in horror as Damon leaned down, whispering something in Caroline´s ear. Even from this distance I could see her blushing and nodding ferociously. Then she was already standing, holding Damon´s hand and leaving the Grill with him. During this whole scene I could only stare, unable to understand how he had managed to get Caroline out of here in such a tempo.

It was not until the door felt close that I came to my senses again. Damon could not just take Caroline like this! Who knew what he would do to her! I needed to help her. In a second my body was set into motion and it was just then that I recognized that Stefan was heading for the door as well. He was a few steps in front of me, heading to stop his insane brother.

 _And the saddest fear comes creeping in  
That you never loved me or her or anyone or anything_

 _I knew you were trouble when you walked in  
So shame on me now_

 _Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble  
Oh, oh, trouble, trouble, trouble_

(Taylor Swift; Trouble)


End file.
